Modern and Contemporary

Short Stories - American music for saxophone quartet
Ancia Saxophone Quartet
Naxos 8.559616

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Borrowing from popular music has almost defined American “classical” music since the time of Ives, and the Ancia Saxophone Quartet has compiled a disc of commissions and favourites that capture Twentieth Century America.

The Chorale from Ives’ String Quartet No. 1 opens this disc, which also includes the third movement of his Fourth Symphony. Ives would have embraced the organ-like sound of the saxophone quartet for his collage of hymns.

The influence of Elliott Carter can be seen in Fred Sturm’s Picasso Cubed (a reworking of a Coleman Hawkins improvisation, perhaps as seen through a kaleidoscope), and in David Bixler’s Heptagon (seven short jazzy Webernesque movements). Accordionist Dee Langley joins for Elusive Dreams, where composer Carleton Macy demonstrates how well the instrument blends with saxophones.

The minimalist movement is represented by Michael Torke’s July. Written one hundred years after the Ives, Torke also likes to borrow from popular music: “Whenever I am drawn to a particular… pop song, I scratch my head and think, ‘I like that, how could I use it?’”

Jennifer Higdon – who is popular now in the orchestral world – wrote the title track, Short Stories, for the Ancia Quartet. Each picturesque movement invokes a film while listening. Higdon knows each instrument, and writes very well for saxophone quartet.

The American Classics Series on NAXOS continues to record a wide range of music and artists, and Ancia’s disc is an enjoyable listen.

Wallace Halladay

Treble & Bass - concertos by Ståle Kleiberg
Marianne Thorsen; Göran Sjölin; Trondheim Symfoniorkester; Daniel Reuss
Lindberg Lyd AS 2L59SACD

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The Norwegian composer Ståle Kleiberg was born in Stavanger in 1958 and now lives in Trondheim. Several of his works have been commissioned by the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, including the two excellent Concertos recorded here featuring Trondheim native Marianne Thorsen on violin and the orchestra’s Swedish principal bass player Göran Sjölin, sensitively accompanied by conductor Daniel Reuss and the excellent Trondheim ensemble.

Kleiberg’s two string concertos are both cast in a traditional three movement fast-slow-fast framework yet exhibit a very individual melodic approach that is remarkably compelling. Restricting himself for the most part to easily comprehensible two part counterpoint, Kleiberg composes long lines of chromatically inflected strands of ever-evolving melodies that captivate the listener through a process of seamless organic metamorphoses. Decidedly post-modern in their allegiance to tonality, these concertos exhibit highly effective and idiomatic string writing. This is especially evident in his double bass concerto. For such a burly fellow, the soul of the contrabass is at heart rather melancholy, intimate and a bit clumsy, and a real challenge to compose for. Soloist Sjölin performs miracles in the many extended passages in the highest register and is rock-solid in his performance of the luminous sections composed entirely from the natural harmonics of the instrument. There’s never a dull moment in either of these eminently accessible works. Highly recommended.

Daniel Foley

Lorenzo Palomo - My Secluded Garden
Maria Bayo; Pepe Romero; Romero Guitar Quartet; Seville Royal Symphony Orchestra; Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
Naxos 8.572139

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The two glorious vocal collections by Spanish contemporary composer Lorenzo Palomo feature many influences from traditional Spanish, Sephardic or Arab roots to more modern day contemporary and quasi jazz tonalities. The rich tonal colours and harmonies are only surpassed by the ever present musical “surprise” lurking around every corner.

The eleven songs comprising My Secluded Garden are composed to the Spanish love poems of Celedonio Romero, the late “grand maestro of the guitar”. Love with all its surprises offers Palomo the opportunity to superimpose the above mentioned styles. Soprano Maria Bayo’s voice is occasionally too shrill but she is confident in her attitude, while guitarist Pepe Romero (Celedonio’s son) provides a perfect backdrop. Callen los pinos, is the melodic gem of the collection with an unforgettable fortissimo climax and a sudden sweet ending.

Love is still the lyric theme in Madrigal and Five Sephardic Songs. The composer sets the traditional texts to a more uniform musical influence, this time the melodies of Jewish songs. Now Bayo’s voice is rich and deep, her intonation flawless, while the guitar setting allows Romero to display his mastery.

Concierto de Cienfuegos for four guitars and orchestra is given a superb rendition by The Romero Guitar Quartet and the Seville Royal Symphony Orchestra. With many musical surprises, this three movement work with Spanish flavours is easy on the ears though deeply rooted in contemporary harmonies and rhythmic variations.

The biggest surprise of the day however was how much I enjoyed “My Secluded Garden” and Lorenzo Palomo’s music. Ole!

Tiina Kiik

Korngold - Violin Concerto
Philippe Quint; Orquestr Sinfoinica de Mineria; Carlos Miguel Prieto
Naxos 8.570791

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Erich Wolfgang Korngold is now chiefly remembered for his outstanding Hollywood movie scores of the late 1930s and early 1940s, but 20 years earlier he had been an established and much-admired young prodigy in Europe, even managing to impress Mahler with his music when only 9 years old. His return to a completely changed European concert scene after the Second World War failed to repeat his earlier successes, however, and he died, scarcely remembered, in 1957.

His Violin Concerto, though, has never left the repertoire, probably because it so successfully combines both of Korngold’s musical worlds. Written in 1945 at the behest of Bronislaw Huberman and premiered by Heifetz in 1947, it is a rich and tuneful late-Romantic work, at times strongly reminiscent of the Barber concerto, with the main themes in all three movements taken from the composer’s own film scores.

Philippe Quint is, as usual, in wonderful form in a warm and beautifully recorded performance. If you don’t yet know his brilliant playing, then take advantage of the great Naxos price to discover it now!

Two early orchestral works complete the CD. Overture to a Drama, from 1911, was the first work the 14-year-old Korngold orchestrated on his own; the influence of Mahler is clearly apparent. The Much Ado About Nothing Suite dates from 1918, and is perhaps better-known in the arrangement the composer made for violin and piano, also available on Naxos.

Terry Robbins